


miles and miles in your bare feet

by Fleur Rochard (fleurrochard), lostinthefire



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Audio Format: M4A, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Community: pod_together, Gen, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:16:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1942569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurrochard/pseuds/Fleur%20Rochard, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinthefire/pseuds/lostinthefire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a place between the worlds, two women wait for you to arrive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	miles and miles in your bare feet

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little based on Seanan McGuire's 'Jack's Place' but not entirely. I've had the idea in my head for ages and finally had the excuse to write it.

  


Download the podfic: [MP3](http://fleur.parakaproductions.com/Podfic/Misc/miles%20and%20miles%20in%20your%20bare%20feet.mp3) (10.7 MB) ||| [M4A](http://fleur.parakaproductions.com/Podfic/Misc/miles%20and%20miles%20in%20your%20bare%20feet.m4a) (5.66 MB), 11:40 min  
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* * *

* * *

“Someone’s coming.”

The younger looking of the two stated it in a light, easy tone of voice. She didn’t seem excited exactly but more content with the announcement than anything else.

The older looked at her, arching an eyebrow. “Spinning yarns again, are we?” She laughs. “We’d better get a room set up.”

“I think they’ll settle in on their own,” she informed with a shrug. “But if you want, I’m sure they won’t mind.”

~

Three girls will grant you wishes when you walk into the door. One will play the songs you want to hear, one will dance the way you always wished you could and one will show no fear, the way you always dreamed you could be.

They’ll grab your hands, pull you down into a pile with them. Laughing and playing music and throwing sharp, glinting knives. A wolf will stand near, watching with dark eyes as it evaluates you but you know it won’t attack. Its been tamed, soothed by the girls and their strange ways.

You wonder if this is a dream, a fairytale story your mind is telling you but you can’t be sure. In the end, all you can do is watch the girls, three pretty faces with dangerous gifts.

And here is the thing that gets you the most; you know you’ll never stay here. You know you’ll never fall into their pack. They’re sisters, though not by blood. But their family is closed. They are self sufficient and uncaring in the way that some children are.

One will dance and not care about the blood on her feet. One will whip around, throwing knives and leaving those around her in awe, unafraid of harming anyone and the third? She’ll lure you away from the rest, let you get wrapped up in her song until you can’t remember what you were doing.

But they’ll never keep you because this reality isn’t yours, this life isn’t the one you’ve earned yet.

You have yet to live your story while they’ve all seen theirs through.

~

“We’ve got a little one on our hands,” the older of the two said. “She’s hardworking though. I like her.”

The younger one laughed, smiling with a genuine affection to it. “I’m not surprised in the least.”

“It seems she’s picked up a stray though.”

“The usual?”

“Our fading friend never seems to get bored of pretty girls wandering from home.”

The younger shook her head. “Only as much as we do.”

~

“Wendy-bird, Wendy-bird, where have you been?”

You look up, your eyes wide at the creature, not cat nor human, sitting above you. You wonder if it’s here to kill you for some reason, morbid a thought as it might be. It seemed reasonable. You’re alone in the woods and no one else is here to keep you safe.

Except yourself. You know you can try and keep yourself from falling, it’s just a matter of if you’ll win the fight in the end.

You don’t answer and the creature leaps down from the tree, circling you, analyzing your presence in a very obvious way that is meant to make you feel uncomfortable.

You bare your teeth and clench your fists, not lady-like at all but you don’t care.

“Now now,” it says. “No need for that, I’m just looking.”

It extends a hand. “I know where you’re going,” it sing-songed. “I can take you there. Somewhere away from home, and away from shepherding little boys. Somewhere all for you.”

You consider the unspoken offer and the alternatives. Lives flash before your eyes, so many you could lead, so many people you could grow up to be….

And when you take it’s—her—hand, you decide it’s time to do something for yourself.

~

“How are the little ones doing?” The older tilted her head a little. “I heard he wasn’t feeling well.”

“Too many sweets,” the younger informed. “His sister got into the cabinets earlier and I think they had a bit too much enthusiasm.”

The older smiled, fondness in her expression. “Well, we can’t expect much else, can we?”

The younger shook her head. “I expect not.”

~

You both remember home. You remember what it as like when things were good there and hardly anything about when it wasn’t. Things were bright, cheerful even and the world was a good place to be. Things shifted though, when your mother died and you soon found yourself in the woods.

Your father said he would come back, said he would fetch you in a few hours, just play in the woods for a while…

He never came.

If you were honest with yourselves, you never expected him to.

But you wandered down the paths nonetheless, explore the woods and the big, strange candy house. You make mischief, you almost die.

You run and you run and you run.

But you can only run for so long and when you find yourselves out of breath, it’s at the foot of the place, the strange and wonderful home for waywards. And that’s what you two are now, wayward children with nowhere to go.

Your sister pushes open the door, you follow behind her.

You realize immediately that you could call this place home.

~

“There’s a bear on its way,”

The older looked up from her knitting, blinking. “Is there now?”

“He’s got people with him.”

She smiled. “Probably not just a bear then.”

“No,” the other laughed. “Is it ever ‘just’ anything though?”

~

You move slowly, your human form strange and awkward when you had been something else for so long. You don’t understand how balance works, how bodies function this way. It strikes you that you wish you could be the bear again, that you could fall back into that skin and be that creature once more. But you are “free” you are no longer wrapped up in curses. Yet…

Yet the girls walk beside you and they miss their bear friend. You miss your other form and you wonder if, where you are headed, they can fix you.

Fix.

It’s a curious way to look at it, yet you know it’s the way you feel. You can’t deny the fact that you feel strange and uncertain in your human body. You don’t fit right, the skin is too cold and exposed and everything about you is small and fragile.

You don’t care for it.

And as you walk on, you pray for relief. You pray for a way to make things the way they should be, rather than the way that people believe they should be.

~

The women sat together, two old friends, though neither of them look that old. They smile as they watch each of you pass by, greet you with open arms, tell you that you’ve found a safe place.

Mother Winter offers you a chance to clean and earn your keep. Scheherazade offers to tell you a story before you settle in for the night. You wonder what kind of place this is, you wonder if this is real.

And you wonder, as you step through the threshold and see all the other refugees, all the other stragglers and strays, if you could really call this place home, just as they have.

Mother Winter puts a hand on your shoulder, offering you an assuring smile.

“Come,” she says. “Let’s have some soup and you can tell us your story.”


End file.
